5-14-2009 Thur

Start point: near Elk Garden
End point: Massie Gap
miles hiked: 8.3
total miles hiked: 493.9

Just a short day today before heading back to Damascus for Trail Days. Ran into Mello Yellow and Brave Friend. They were hiking southbound doing a section into Damascus. Alot of people like to hike into Damascus for Trail Days even if they aren't actually hiking the AT at the moment. I was happy that they will both be there so I can talk to them some more. We stopped at Thomas Knob Shelter which is pretty much on Mt Rogers, Virginia's highest mountain (5.729 elev). It is a pretty area, lots of highland meadows and alot of wild ponies. While we were stopped at the shelter for lunch some of the ponies came up. We'd all heard that they will come up and lick you and will let you feed them, but it was still suprising to have some ponies come up and just hang out and eat from your hand. Of course we took lots of photos and then headed out.

going up to the 2nd level of Thomas Knob Shelter
(Blues Traveler going through Fat Mans Squeeze)
Blues Travler's wife was supposed to pick us up at Massie Gap at 2pm so we didn't wanna be late. We got there on time, she was late, but it was good to know we're done hiking for a few days, my feet were still hurting. Mrs Blues as we called her got there and we got rolling back to Damascus. She turned out to be super cool, and we had alot of laughs on the way to town. We went to the campgrounds and got set up at tent city. Trail Days is mostly a Fri-Sun thing, but alot of people get there on Thur when they open the campgrounds. Went to the grocery store and got stocked up for the weekend. Saw a ton of hikers that I've met along my way but haven't seen in a long time. It really is the people that make this trail so amazing. The only downside today, I stepped on a tent stake and cut a huge gash on my big toe. Flip-flops have definitely proved not to be good shoes for camp, wish I had some Crocs. Got it clean and will be making sure to keep it clean as to avoid infection. Hung out with Saltly Dog most of the late night, Blues and Dragonbreath went to bed pretty early. We went around to different camps and hung out with different folks. We got rained on alot that night but it was still fun.